Virtual Quill

Fenton and returned early to school from Christmas break, mainly because I have a ton of research to finish up before I graduate in May. And no, I still haven't given any thought to what comes after that. Intense focus to the exclusion of all else is what's gotten me this far, so why stop now?
Thing is, for the first time my singular focus is divided between the work needed to graduate and my wedding preparations. Fenton is being as supportive as he can, but there's nothing he can do for the first task and little that he's capable of doing for the second.
Tree is bothered as well. (I was surprised that trees had nightmares; I didn't know they slept.) I think her dream is a sign that she fears being severed from Fenton, but heck; I'm no psychology major.
This little suburban world of ours is going to be changing, and I'm the reason. Ironically, all the time I was growing up with Angelique in the household I craved stability. I finally found it, and now I'm leaving.
It's going to be an interesting year.
So, what are your plans for New Year's Eve?

I’m home from college after the fall semester, and I repeated my Christmas tree impression one more time for the family. I’m now down to business doing the gift shopping, which is always a challenge since fall semester usually ends less than a week before the holiday.
I’m feeling nostalgic, as this will be my last Christmas before Fenton and I start our own family. No, it’ll just be the two of us for a while, but still, things will be different next year. I’m paying more attention than usual to the little Dewclaw family traditions we have: Kell crying at old movies on TV, Dad eating the mistletoe, Rudy attempting to buy earrings that Fiona doesn’t already own and Coney trying to sneak downstairs in the middle the night on Christmas Eve only to encounter nocturnal me guarding the presents. I’ll miss all that.
Yes, I know, I’ll be living within Tree just down the street, at the bottom of the hill. The thing is, I’d always planned on going to graduate school and getting a Ph.D. I can’t do that here in Domain. This whole graduation business came upon me suddenly, and in five months, it’ll be here.
What do I want for Christmas? Time to make decisions that’ll impact my entire life.
Now Fenton and I are off to see “Avatar.” It’s about a herbivore mentally controlling the body of a blue predator. Today's question for those of you who saw the movie this weekend, what did you think?

It was fun being decorated like a Christmas tree. It was for the party that Rhonda and Quinn threw at the family housing dorm, and I was a big hit with the students’ young children. (All under five.) I didn’t stand in one place, through, so people couldn’t place presents beneath me. Fenton took a picture and sent it to Tree back home, who replied with great mirth. She called me the daughter she’d never had. It was just a temporary costume, of course, as already my quills are growing back.
Back home, four-year-old Coney is at the stage where she’s asking questions about Santa. Every child goes through a stage of believing that lasts until about age six or seven, when the inherent contradictions of the story cause it to collapse. Still, it’s instructive as it teaches self-control for both carnivores and herbivores.
It the case of carnivores, that was the reason for Santa being the most tempting of targets: an elderly, overweight prey species clad in easy-to-spot bright red. Young predators had to balance the immediate gratification of eating Santa against the consequence of never receiving presents in the future. They learned that “good boys and girls” chose the long view, and thereby began to appreciate the benefits of conserving limited resources.
The custom of setting out plates of foliage for Santa to browse tries to do the same for herbivore children, but with less effectiveness. I was raised as a plant eater, and was told that if I ate Santa’s leaves he’d starve to death. With all that fat on him, I didn’t buy it. The little plate left on the fireplace wasn’t going to make that much of a difference to his survival! Still, I’m sure I’ll tell the same story to my children.
To the humans out there, I assume your Santa is human as well. Does he fulfill a similar role of influencing the behavior of human children?

Fenton and I are back at Beige after spending the weekend at home decorating Tree. She puts a great deal of effort into her appearance, which leads me to wonder if she’s unusual in that regard or if other trees are similarly inclined but just aren’t able to express themselves. I especially wonder about deciduous trees and their gaudy fall colors.
Danielle created shoes for Francis to wear, which makes sense. During the brief time that Fenton and I were in the human world, buying shoes was one of the first things we did. If we had stayed for any length of time our bare feet would have developed protective callouses, but that wouldn’t have solved the cultural problem. All of the humans that we encountered wore shoes, and we didn’t want to stand out more than we probably did. “Look at that couple! They’re eating crickets! And they’re not wearing shoes!”
On this side of the portal the only shoe-wearing species is the horse, and purely for protective purposes. The idea of wearing them as ornamentation doesn’t exist here, probably because with all of our fur we have so many other ways of expressing vanity.
I’m not immune from that. Tonight I’m going to find out what it’s like for someone to decorate me.
So, what kind of shoes do you humans wear?